Educational Resources

As an educational and research organization, IFAR has amassed an enormous body of material in its primary fields of interest. In this Educational Resources section we are making some of this material — as well as new information — available to the public in electronic format. It is part of our on-going effort to provide tools to help people make informed decisions about the legal, ethical, and scholarly issues involved in the collecting and exhibiting of art. Updated regularly, the section features an extensive search system and a network of internal and external links.

Art Law & Cultural Property
Providing major new resources that govern the acquisition and ownership of artworks—International Cultural Property Ownership and Export Legislation (ICPOEL) and U.S. Case Law and Statutes (CLS)—this section also contains foreign cultural affairs contacts and a legal glossary. Registration to access the more detailed materials will help us evaluate the usefulness of the site and improve its next iteration.

Catalogues Raisonnés
The catalogue raisonné is an essential tool in conducting provenance, authentication, and other art historical research on catalogues raisonnés. Based on our extensive work on these resources, IFAR here presents two related new bibliographic databases: one of published catalogues, the other of works-in-progress. Also featured are a glossary, a users' guide, and links to other relevant sections of this Website and other sites.

Provenance Guide
This overview of key resources will help guide those conducting provenance research for the critical years, 1933-45. Establishing a reliable provenance — the history of ownership — is an important step in documenting a work of art. It is not an easy process and for many works, gaps inevitably remain.

Collectors’ Corner
The Collectors' Corner is a new and expanding resource offering practical and important information for collectors—both experienced as well as those getting started—on the subjects of researching, authenticating, documenting, insuring and caring for their artworks.